EV 101 Workshop

EV 101: What to Know Before You Buy

EV Workshop

Saturday, June 1, 2024 from 10 AM to 3 PM

Workshop Location: CCAC West Hills Center, 1000 McKee Road, Oakdale, PA 15071.

This free day of learning and interaction included:

EV Workshops
Q&A sessions with EV Owners
EV Showcase
EV Ride N Drives

Breakfast and lunch was included with Registration.

Presenters

Several members of our club lead the various workshops to help members of the public decide if owning an electric vehicle was right for them.

Jonathan Belak

Workshop #1 - EV History

Workshop #4 - Battery Chemistries

Jonathan Belak is the President of the Three Rivers EVA, since 2008, and is a very knowledgeable asset to our club.

Jonathan has been driving electric vehicles for the past twenty years. He has over 40,000 educational research hours on electro-magnetic propulsion, ev history and battery systems.

Jonathan is a two time electric drag racing world record holder since 2010. He has worked with several organizations and educational institutions at the local, state, regional and national levels, in promoting and educating the general public about electric vehicles.

Rick Price

Workshop #2 - EV Incentives

Rick Price is the Executive Director of Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities and has been involved with the Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities for almost 15 years.

He has served as coalition coordinator, president, and has been a member of the Board of Directors for five years. He retired from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2007 after 37 years of service.

Mr. Price was the Organizational Property Management Officer for the National Energy Technology Laboratory for 20 years, during which his duties included serving as the Motor Vehicle Manager of a fleet of 82 vehicles. He was instrumental in bringing alternative fueled vehicles and infrastructure to the lab and won an award for small fleets from the DOE in 2005.

Robert Koch

Workshop #3 - EV Maintenance

Robert Koch is a Professor at CCAC West Hills Center in the Automotive and Transportation Department since 1988.

Robert has always had a passion for cars and it made sense to him to pass that skill along to others. He believes that a skilled trade gives students an opportunity for a lifetime of employment.

Kristen Sabol

Workshop #5 - EV Charging

Kristen Sabol is the Co-Director at Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities.

Kristen brings over 20 years of experience in the technology sector as a communications strategist, media consultant, events planner and change agent working for internationally recognized clientele spanning early stage startups, Fortune 500 corporations, non-profits, and academic institutions. Prior to joining PRCC, she worked as a consultant for the Eaton Corporation and the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Resource Centers Network advocating for projects in renewable energy and personal robotics. For four years, she served as the Communications Director of the Quality of Life Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Her work focuses on driving the adoption of highly disruptive innovations through socially relevant brand building, content development and community engagement.

Chris Gassman

Workshop #6 - Road Tripping with an EV

Chris Gassman is the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Business, a leading business strategy collaboration hub at the University of Pittsburgh.

In addition to road tripping his 2019 Chevy Bolt, he is a social intrapreneur with a decade of experience across the U.S., Egypt, Germany, China, and beyond, helping companies thrive. He hosts interviews with CEOs about doing well by doing good on The Market And The Good Podcast.

Chris earned his MBA / JD joint degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He received his BA from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a double major in International Affairs and Political Science.

Markus Erbeldinger

Workshop #7 - EV Navigation

Markus Erbeldinger, Ph.D. is the Senior Product & Marketing Manager at a national perimeter security company. Prior to that he worked at a Biotechnology start-up company out of the University of Pittsburgh.

Markus has extensive experience with road tripping an EV. He has driven an EV since June 2021, and covered so far 120,000 miles in four different EV's. He also has driven multiple rental car EV's while on business trips.

Bonnie Belak

Workshop #8 - Tips for Purchasing an EV

Bonnie Belak has been an officer and member of the Three Rivers EVA since 2008. She also designed and manages our club website.

She has been driving electric vehicles for the past twenty years. Bonnie likes unusual vehicles and has driven a Zap Xebra, her current Mitsubishi i-MiEV and has a three-wheeled Aptera on order.

Over the past ten years, coordinating with the Mother Earth News Fair, she organized our East Coast Electric Vehicle Roundup and Alternative Energy Car Show. That car show was the club's biggest event each year. She also organized several Earth Day Car Shows and National Drive Electric Month events.

EV Showcase

After the workshops, we took a break for lunch. After lunch, workshop attendees had an opportunity to talk one on one with the various vehicle owners at the EV Showcase.

Here is an example of one of the Informational Spec Sheets of one of the vehicles on display at the event.